The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (37 page)

His “filth” and “squalor”, of course, were code words for his hatred of Jews and our little section of the city. I despised him, but up until this moment, I had thought Divya had just been dabbling, devouring his large budget for fun; such wealth had been unknown to her. But Robert revealed he had more prurient intentions.

“You have to win the election first,” I said, scowling as I lit a cigarette.

“And
gut morgn
to you, Miss Rosen,” Robert said, intoning the Yiddish with scorn.

I exhaled smoke in his direction. Divya glanced at me, but quickly averted her eyes.

“Anyway, my darling,” Robert said to Divya, “I should not tarry. I’ve a lunch meeting with the South Street dockmaster. We’re trying to open the dockyards to auto-police inspection. We’re going to put an end to the contraband that’s smuggled into this city.”

“And what do the boys down at the Seventh Precinct think of your plan, Robert?” I said. “I don’t think they’re very happy that you plan to replace their jobs with machines.”

“I don’t plan to replace them, only augment what’s already there.”

“ ‘Augment’? Is that what you’re calling your little coup?”

“Pardon me, my ‘coup’?”

“It’s obvious that you and the dockmaster are planning to take control of the docks to secure your
own
smuggling ring.”

“Miss Rosen!” Divya chirped.

Robert put his hand on her shoulder to quiet her. “It’s all right, Divya. I’m not offended. I hear such accusations regularly. In a city full of corruption, one can hardly blame Miss Rosen for being suspicious.”

“There’s enough corruption in this room to fill all of New York,” I said.

“Indeed,” he said. “I too have friends at the Seventh Precinct. Thievery is rampant in the Lower East Side, they tell me. Things burgled out of bureaus and jewelry boxes while good folks sleep. Now, where might a thief sell such things?” Robert ostentatiously scanned my store. He ran his hand along a rack of clothing, stirring up a cloud of dust. “I know you think I hate Jews, Miss Rosen. I don’t. Yours is the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Many Jews in this neighborhood contribute to society with honest, hard work. But there’s nothing honest about this place. These feral pawn shops provide an avenue for crooks and thieves – how does one say in Yiddish? –
ganefs
. As Mayor, I’ll see to it that all of these shops are closed permanently.”

“You’re not Mayor yet,” I said.

“No, not yet. But soon. Now, my dear,” Robert said, turning back to Divya. “I must beg your leave. I’ll be late for my lunch with the dockmaster. But first I must dash home to fetch some papers for him to sign. I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yes,” she said, briefly looking askance at me before she kissed him on the cheek. Finally, Robert and his entourage left the store.

Divya returned to her position behind the counter. I lit another cigarette and stared at her.

“What?” she said.

“Nothing.”

“Why are you looking at me that way?”

“
What
way?”

She shook her head. “I know you think Robert is a buffoon.”

“That’s the least of his faults.”

“Are you
jealous
?”

I set my jaw and took a sip of my spiced coffee, which had gone cold. “Tell me, Divya, is this the financial security you were talking about? Your knight come to rescue you from a life of poverty? Because you know there’s only one thing men like him are after, and it’s not your smile.”

She swallowed and sat on a stool as the color fled from her face. “I need to tell you something, Miss Rosen. It may … change your opinion of me.”

I moved closer, dreading the worst. Had she already defiled herself with that despicable man? I felt sick. “What is it?”

“Two nights ago, I went to a political dinner with Robert, and he introduced me to many senators and businessmen. He made a show of me, and more than one person refused to shake my hand. There were so many important people that my head spun. I had a bit too much wine, and I allowed him to whisk me back to his house by private dirigible without protest. He waved to many people on the ground as we flew home. It seemed he wanted everyone to know I was with him.”

My stomach turned as I sensed where this was heading. Divya looked up at me with the same guilty eyes as when the gold watch had gone missing.

“Back in his bedroom, Robert pressed himself upon me, but I resisted his advances. He was drunk. Far drunker than me. I convinced him to lie on the bed, and he was more than obliging. I whispered softly to him as my mother once did to me, and in no time he was sound asleep and snoring.

“It was very late, past 2 a.m., and I wanted to go home, but I dared not walk the Manhattan streets alone at that hour. But I could not sleep. So I began looking through his shelves for something to hold my attention – a book perhaps – and when I found nothing of interest, I opened his drawers.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“In the back of one, I found a small velvet satchel that I assumed was filled with small seeds. What a curious thing to keep in a drawer, I thought. But they were not seeds. The satchel was filled with diamonds.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“I thought, ‘He has so many. Would Robert miss but a few of these?’ I put a handful inside a handkerchief and sealed them tight. I didn’t sleep that night, and when Robert awoke the next morning, he remembered little, apologized for his drunkenness and took me home. He was too ill to notice how nervous I was.” She looked up at me with those kitten-like eyes.

“Go on,” I said.

“As soon as I returned home, I became wracked with guilt. I knew that Robert would discover they were missing. So I decided to return the diamonds at my earliest opportunity. I’d seduce him, return to his bedchamber and replace them while he slept. But last night they vanished from my room.”

“Vanished?” I said, in feigned surprise.

“Yes. My door was locked from the inside. My father works nights at the docks and hadn’t returned home when I arose for work this morning.”

“May I ask where you stored these missing diamonds?”

“In a small wooden tool box under the bed.”

I took a deep breath. Divya had just happened to be digging around in the back of Robert’s drawers out of boredom? No, she had been looking for something. Something to take. Something to …
steal
? I swallowed as the truth dawned on me. “Divya, may I ask you a question?”

“Yes.”

“That little Yid didn’t steal the pocket watch, did he?”

Her eyes looked sorrowfully up at me. But I saw, for the first time, deception in them.

“And what else have you taken from me?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Rosen!” She began to cry, but I felt that this, too, was fake. If she had been playing Robert to secure his money, then she had been playing me, too. She had been playing everyone for a fool.

“I trusted you, Divya.”

“Oh, come off your high horse, Jessica!” she snapped, startling me. “I’ve been here three months and you never buy from customers, and yet the inventory increases daily. Don’t think I don’t know where these things come from! You’re a thief, a
ganef
, too!”

I gasped and stepped back; I suddenly didn’t recognize this woman who accused me.

“Your parents left you money!” she said. “They left you this gigantic house! And you accuse
me
? You had a start. I came here with
nothing
! I have
nothing
! My father and I, we are just trying to survive.”

“My dear, please—”

“No! You can accuse me all you want,” she said, “but that’s utter hypocrisy!”

I sighed. I had believed that Divya was a naive, innocent girl. It was painful watching my beliefs torn asunder. But it was also time to shatter some of her illusions, too.

“You’re correct. I’ve no right to accuse you. Lock the store, and come with me.”

Looking puzzled, Divya obeyed and followed me upstairs to the attic. There I showed her my file cabinets with all of the items my crawlers had stolen. “Like you, I started small, stealing things here and there, just to get by,” I said. “Pretty soon I couldn’t stop.” I opened one cabinet and handed her the black box of diamonds.

Her jaw dropped.

“The crawlers are like cats. I give them guidelines, but they follow their own instincts.” I said. “I could not know that Miriam would steal from you.”

“Miriam? You name them?”

“I like to think of them as my children. We take care of each other.”

She stared at me, and I sensed warmth in her glance. But I didn’t trust her anymore.

“Tell me, Divya,” I said. “That time in my office, when we kissed, were you toying with me as you toyed with Robert? Was I another fool?”

Her eyes flashed from mine to the diamonds. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“At the time, yes, I was manipulating you. But I didn’t expect to … feel something.”

My spirits lifted. “What did you feel?”

“I didn’t plan on staying here for very long,” she said. “I … don’t have time for feelings.”

“When were you going to leave?”

“As soon as I had enough money.”

I shook my head. “Was anything you told me true? Was your mother sick? Do you even have a father?”

“Yes! All of that was true. We were so poor in Gujarat! You can’t understand what it’s like not knowing where your next meal will come from, or what it’s like watching your mother die while British soldiers vomit ale on the streets, then chortle and try to kiss you as you pass them on your way to wash
their
stinking uniforms! Just one of Robert’s stones could have saved my mother’s life!”

“And do I make you angry, too?”

She shook her head. “No. You’ve been nothing but kind to me. As kind as my mother.”

I sat on a stool and lit a cigarette and looked at the crawlers, which even in their reflected brilliance seemed devoid of life. I suddenly found it pathetic how I had, for far too long, invested them with souls they’d never possessed. My life felt empty, and I realized all the more strongly how much I had wanted Divya to be a part of it, and still did, even now.

“You were going to leave
today
, weren’t you?” I said. “Once your father returned from work you and he would have fled New York with your diamonds.”

She nodded. “There’s an airship leaving for San Francisco this afternoon. I have two tickets.”

“Were you even going to say goodbye?”

“Goodbyes are too painful.”

“Here you go,” I said, offering the box to her. “Take your diamonds. Flee the city. No goodbye necessary.
Mazel tov
.”

“No,” she said. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to leave.”

Outside, I heard shouting and the telltale sounds of automatons clip-clopping down the street.

“You want to stay?” I said.

“Miss Rosen … Jessica. I know you may not believe me now, but I could have left yesterday. I stayed because … because I think I’m—” Her voice was interrupted by the sound of the buzzer; someone was at the door. I heard a shout from down on the street.

“OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!”

“Wait here,” I said to Divya, and stepped to the window. Four auto-giraffes, mounted by policemen, waited outside my store. A group of footed officers wielding pistols stood behind an irate-looking Robert and his two bodyguards. A small crowd of pedestrians was forming. I ducked back inside.

“Miss Rosen,” Robert shouted. “We saw you in there!”

To Divya I said, “Stay quiet!” I stuck my head out again and said, “And I can see you, too. What on earth is all this about?”

“Good afternoon, ma’am,” Robert shouted, using a tone of deference he’d never shown me before. “Do you know the whereabouts of Miss Divya? We would like to speak with her. Is she in there with you?”

“Divya took her lunch break and went out. You’re interrupting mine. Come back in half an hour.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Rosen, but this is a matter of some urgency. We believe she has stolen something of great value.”

“Well, she’s not here. Go away.”

“Will you let us in, please?” Robert said.

“Just hang on a moment.” I retreated back inside.

Divya looked frightened and had backed herself against the wall. “He must have gone home to fetch the diamonds for his meeting with the dockmaster.”

“A bribe, probably, for control of South Street,” I said.

“It was another lie, wasn’t it?” Divya said. “I wasn’t his ‘darling Hindu goddess’. He paraded me around in front of the city so he’d have a scapegoat if he got caught with the diamonds. Who would the public believe had stolen them? The poor immigrant girl from Gujarat, or the ‘upstanding’ citizen, Robert? I was a such a fool!”

“We were all fools, it seems.”

“What do I do now, Jessica? I can’t go to prison. Who’d take care of my father?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t let them take you, Divya.”

I opened one of the cabinets and pulled out a Confederate Civil War officer’s belt with an attached pouch. I shoved the box of diamonds inside the pouch, closed it, and then handed the belt to her. “Hurry, put this on!”

“What for?”

“You’re leaving, Divya. Now! Climb down the rear fire escape to the back alley and take Peck Slip over to the airport. Get your father and get the hell out of New York.”

“But … I don’t want to go!”

“You have no choice,” I said. “Stay here and you go to prison. Or worse.”

“What about you? They’ll arrest you!”

“Don’t you worry about me. Now run before they break down my door!”

“Jessica …” She put a warm hand on mine. “I’m sorry. I wish it could have been different. I wish I could have shown you the real me.”

“Me too,” I said.

“Perhaps in the next life,” she said.

“
Cane yehi ratzon
. May it be God’s will.”

I moved to the rear window. The alley below was absent of police. “Now!” I said, waving her over. “
Mach shnel!
”

She stepped to the rear window, the window I had watched my crawlers slink out of on a thousand moonlit nights.

Then she was gone.

I heard a policeman’s whistle and a chorus of shouts. “She’s climbed out the back! She’s in the rear!” I peered out the window and saw a man rising from a hiding place behind the trash bin. I knew his voice. It was Elijah. He must have spotted her with his prosthetic, telescopic eye.